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If you have an affiliation with a group or another person, you are officially involved or connected with them.

A bleak landscape is bare and unwelcoming, leading towards little hope or encouragement for dwellers there.

Something is a blight if it spoils or damages things severely; blight is often used to describe something that ruins or kills crops.

Bonhomie is a friendly feeling among a group of people.

A cadre is a group specially trained to lead, formalize, and accomplish a particular task, or to train others as part of a larger organization; it can also be used to describe an elite military force.

Camaraderie is a feeling of friendship and trust among a group of people who have usually known each over a long period of time.

A convivial atmosphere or occasion is friendly, pleasant, cheerful, and relaxed.

A cosmopolitan area represents large cultural diversity and people from around the globe; a cosmopolitan person is broad-minded and wise in the ways of the world.

A coterie is a small group of people who are close friends or do things together and who often do not want other people to join them.

Decrepitude is the state of being very old, worn out, or very ill—something or someone is no longer in good physical condition or good health.

Something such as a building or place is derelict if it is empty, not used, and in bad condition or disrepair.

A desolate area is unused, empty of life, deserted, and lonely.

If you are despondent, you are extremely unhappy because you are in an unpleasant situation that you do not think will improve.

A dilapidated building, vehicle, etc. is old, broken-down, and in very bad condition.

If you are disconsolate you are very unhappy or so sad that nothing will make you feel better.

Weather that is dreary tends to be depressing and gloomy; a situation or person that is dreary tends to be boring or uninteresting.

A state of euphoria is one of extreme happiness or overwhelming joy.

Exclusion is the act of shutting someone out of a group or an activity.

An expatriate has been driven or exiled from his native land so he is forced to live in another country; a person can also willingly become an expatriate.

A gregarious person is friendly, highly social, and prefers being with people rather than being alone.

You use hermetic to describe something that is set apart, isolated, or separate from the influence or interference of society at large.

If you incarcerate someone you put him in prison.

Someone who is inconsolable has been so devastated by a terrible event that no one can help her feel better about it.

If someone is lugubrious she is looking very sad or gloomy.

A metropolitan area is a large city.

Someone who is morose is unhappy, bad-tempered, and unwilling to talk very much.

If someone is ostracized from a group, people deliberately refuse to talk or listen to him and do not allow him to take part in any of their social activities.

A pariah is a social outcast.

A recluse is someone who chooses to live alone and deliberately avoids other people.

Someone who is saturnine is looking miserable and sad, sometimes in a threatening or unfriendly way.

If you sequester someone, you keep him separate from other people.

When you refer to someone as a troglodyte, you disapprove of him because he tends to be lacking in social skills and is out of step with current times.

If you feel unrequited love or passion for another, it means that while you love that person, she or he doesn’t return that feeling.

If you behave in an urbane way, you are behaving in a polite, refined, and civilized fashion in social situations.

If you refer to someone as a yokel you think that he is not very intelligent and does not know much about modern life or ideas because he stays put in the countryside.

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Adj.

forlorn

for-LAWRN

Context

Woe is me, for I am forlorn, having been abandoned by my only true love. Why my beloved would leave me forlorn and lonely I know not. All I know is that the rest of my life will be forlorn and miserable without her in my life. I will move to some forlorn place, far away from humankind, where I can weep and moan in my utterly cheerless and deserted state.

Quiz:Try again!
What is someone who is forlorn?

He is unhappy and alone.

He is rather disappointed because his best friend forgot his birthday.

Memory Hook

Forest Lonely Jeb the hermit was forlorn, alone and lonely in the deep, dark forest.

Examples

When finalist Jonathan Cerf made a forcing move in the first of two games, defending champion Carol Jacobs gave him a forlorn but affectionate smile.
—Sports Illustrated

Croft and Sim trade verses like a couple worn down from arguing — their lyrics are pleas and protests, but they're delivered in an empty, forlorn tone.
—Rolling Stone

The cover price got you in the door, and if you got there early enough, a few snacks, as the snack table was looking completely ravaged by 6:30, with only a few forlorn chips left on the white tablecloths.
—Wired

The most forlorn is Floyd, until he improbably makes it up with his wife and Ophelia, ready to live happily ever after on his borrowed time.
—TIME

Word Ingredients

for-

→

thoroughly, completely

lorn

→

lost

Someone who is “thoroughly or completely lost” usually feels forlorn because of it.

origin: Old English

Knowing language of origin or etymology is not important; but is sometimes interesting enough to make the word memorable. Only such words have associated maps.

Word Theater

Malcolm in the Middle Malcom is feeling forlorn.

The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!